Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) recently completed a project on its campus called the Student Hall for Exploration and Development, which has become known as SHED. This new creative hub will centralize the university’s makerspace and performing arts studios and theaters. An important visual detail of the inspiring structure is the new 3072 x 3584px Planar LED marquee, which is brought to life with AV Stumpfl’s PIXERA four server.
Founded in 1829, RIT is known for its multi-disciplinary blend of technology, the arts, and design. The university provides a wide range of academic opportunities for its more than 19,000 students and more than 135,000 graduates from 50 states and over 100 nations.
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The LED marquee was donated by RIT alumnus Austin McChord who is an avid supporter of his alma mater and favors the experiential learning approach that defines many of RIT’s acclaimed courses. After looking at different options for a media server system to support the LED marquee’s content playout setup, RIT chose an AV Stumpfl’s PIXERA four server, which supports real-time graphics applications and XR/broadcast setups.
PIXERA offers an intuitive UI combined with a powerful render engine, but its 64-bit system for real-time media processing, compositing and management has also become increasingly useful in virtual productions, a fact that didn’t escape the notice of David Long, director of RIT’s MAGIC Center, who joined the faculty of the School of Film and Animation at RIT in 2007 where he also serves as an Associate Professor for the motion picture science program.
MAGIC, short for Media, Arts, Games, Interaction, and Creativity, is a university-wide research and development laboratory and a commercial production studio that assists in efforts to bring digital media creations up to marketplace standards and commercialization.
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“On a purely practical level, we have the technical requirements related to our new marquee," Long commented. "PIXERA fitted the bill perfectly, both in terms of the feature versatility and general ROI. Since we have many courses, however, where our students would benefit from getting hands-on experience with a high-end media server platform like PIXERA, our interest goes beyond having a great playout system.
“We want our students to create, collaborate and perform together at the highest possible level. PIXERA can act as a powerful bridge between our design, film production and engineering courses. Our plan is to gradually introduce PIXERA to our curriculum, so that our students from different disciplines are empowered to turn their creative and technological ideas into a tangible reality.”
